There's a new organization in play, bent on discovering the secrets of magic: the Terran Inquisition. But what do they want with Nick?

I really didn't like where this part ended the last time I posted. Upon reflection it seemed like that end was almost deliberately misleading and more of an artificial cliffhanger than anything else, sorry about that :(

A thank you goes out to Josette Du Pres, who messaged me and actually got my lazy bum to write a good portion of this. It probably would have been at least another month without that message :)

I fixed up some things in part two and then just decided to finish the chapter, so here's parts two and three. Hope you enjoy!

 

-Tas

 

 

 

 

 

Earth, Day ??

 

Nick blinked uncertainly at the cafeteria he’d been led to by a non-descript scientist after being unshackled from the hospital bed, changing out of the hospital gown, and having an official looking nametag attached to his new clothes. Despite being fairly spartan in the way of decorations, the room managed to give off a welcoming and friendly feeling. There was a buffet with a bunch of great looking food, and his mouth watered as he spotted steak and salad, both of which were positively magnetic after eating pizza for an entire week, not to mention how long he’d been asleep. It looked like it was meal time, because the large rectangular tables were full of men and women and, much to his surprise, some of them had black Keys. It didn’t seem like they were being forced to stay, and they were all chatting amiably until he was noticed.

The chatter died down and one of the girls with a black headband stood up and beckoned to him. She looked to be a bit younger than he was, likely late high school age, and had shorter brown hair that didn’t quite reach her shoulders. Like the rest of the people in the room, him included, she was wearing non-descript grey sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt of the same color, though she’d rolled up the sleeves. “Well don’t just stand there, come on over!”

He numbly followed her instructions, shuffling over to the table and sitting down in an empty spot next to the girl. There was a wave of quiet laughter as he slumped in his seat, and the brown haired teen nudged him with an elbow, grinning. “So what did Dark do to you? He always plays some sort of scary prank whenever someone new gets here. Don’t let it bother you, despite looking like some evil mastermind or something, he’s really pretty nice, even if he is an asshole sometimes. I’m Amanda by the way, what’s your name?”

One of the men across from him, old enough to have grey in his dark hair, chuckled when he didn’t respond. “Ah leave him be, he’s still shell shocked. Let the kid get some food and he’ll be alright.”

Nick wasn’t sure why he wasn’t panicking, maybe it was the shock. He’d just been kidnapped and couldn’t contact Jess to let her know he was alright; much less his parents, and was trapped with no idea where he was. Is this what David feels like? Calm in the middle of everything? He wondered. The scientists, at least he assumed they were scientists, seemed friendly and willing to answer a few questions, and he decided it was worth a shot. “Where am I? Why am I here?”

“This is the headquarters for the Terran Inquisition. Sorry but the location is a secret, no one knows but Dark and our sponsor, some guy who calls himself the ‘Illusive Man’, as if we wouldn’t get the reference. I’m surprised he didn’t decide to name this organization Cerberus.” The greying man across from him explained, rolling his eyes and causing another ripple of laughter. Nick’s eyes flicked to the ID on his shirt, noting that his name was Jeremi. “As for why you’re here, it’s because we need people who can use magic so we can study it and we’re trying to keep everything really quiet so the public doesn’t find out.”

“That doesn’t mean you had to fucking kidnap me!” Nick snarled, slamming his fists down on the table and glaring at the man across the table, whatever shock that’d been keeping him calm evaporating instantly.

The whole table recoiled and Jeremi’s face hardened after a brief expression of shock. “Explain.”

Nick took a deep breath, trying to get his fists to unclench and resist the impulse to lash out. “Je- my friend and I had just gotten back from Ilos and were hanging out in her room before going to bed when I noticed some movement in the window. I knew something was going to happen, so we packed some stuff and tried to run. There were military just outside the door who tried to shoot us, and we made it to the street before I got hit with a dart, though I made sure my friend got away before it knocked me out. Then I woke up practically naked with my arms and legs shackled to a hospital bed by cold iron and now I’m trapped in some secret base and I can’t contact Jess!” Nick made fists on the table and bowed his head, trying to hide the tears that were starting to form in his eyes.

“What have you done Arterian?” Jeremi muttered, then continued louder. “Amanda, get him some food and then show him to his room. I need to go have a chat with our ever so wise leader.”

Nick didn’t remember much after that. There was some food that he ate tastelessly despite how wonderful it looked earlier, then Amanda led him to a room. That room had a bed, which was the only thing he really noticed before laying down on it. He lay there staring at the ceiling as the teen tried to talk to him from a chair next to the bed, not really responding to anything. After being unconscious for who knows how long, he was hardly tried enough to go back to sleep, but there was something about Amanda’s voice, or something she said, or maybe the soothing tone, that made him drift off.

 

------

 

Ding dong, ding dong!

Nick sat up sharply, startled at the sudden noise from the speaker in the ceiling, and glanced around. He was alone in a rather large and soft bed in a rather large and well-furnished room, though he was still dressed for some reason, even to his shoes. Where…? He closed his eyes and breathed out slowly. Right. Kidnapped and in some mysterious secret base where they study magic. Had a meltdown, brought to this room. Okay. His eyes opened again as he looked around.

The room was nice, just short of being wastefully opulent, and the biggest bedroom he’d ever seen. The bed he was in was king sized and was covered in the softest sheets he’d ever touched. The bedside tables to either side were made of a rich dark wood and polished till they shone, with the floor made of the same material, if a bit lighter. The tables held lamps that were intricately carved and inlaid with gold, and the shades that softened the light from the bulbs looked like they were hand-painted. The massive carpet that took up most of the room was almost an inch thick and decorated with Celtic symbols. Off to the side was a fluffy couch in front of a positively massive TV, as well as what looked suspiciously like a gaming system. There was a fan in the ceiling along with some speakers, which is where the sound that woke him up had come from. From what he could see past where the bathroom door stood open, that room was just as opulent as the one he was in.

All in all, the place was practically dripping money.

Now that he wasn’t panicking, he could take a step back and actually think. The place he was in was obviously well-funded, and because it was secret it had to be either private or government owned. He kept general tabs on government expenditures because they could affect his own investments, and he knew that the United States’ government funded a number of projects that weren’t publicly known, so this could be one of those depending on how much the Terran Inquisition needed. Magic was a new thing on Earth, and he had no idea what kind of funding a program like this would take, but a sudden increase in expenditure is always seen with suspicion, so if this facility was supposed to be secret it was either built a good while ago or was funded privately – possibly both.

He thought back to what Jeremi had said about having a sponsor known as the Illusive Man. If there was a single sponsor then the possibly of the base being privately funded was rather high, and it also meant that this Illusive Man was more than likely trying to make money off of magic. Nick’s brief impression of the people in the base told him that they were there by choice and were treated well. The scientists were likely on board because a good portion of the scientific community lived to discover new things, and this was certainly an opportunity to do that, or they were getting paid a good amount of money. Probably both. He mused. The people with Keys could be there because they felt like they were helping, they were getting paid a lot, or any number of other reasons, but he was fairly certain that he was the only one there forcibly.

Any way he thought about it, it didn’t make sense. Obviously the scientists and the ‘subjects’ got along fairly well, so why would an organization that seemed built on that kind of trust suddenly kidnap someone who might be uncooperative or even cause dis sent among the other participants? Unwilling workers ground a project to a halt almost as fast as a lack of funding, so why take that risk?

If there were cons to this there also had to be pros that possibly outbalanced them, which left him with two possibilities. First, this Illusive Man was changing his business strategy from paid labor to forced labor in order to bring in more subjects and accelerate research. However, that also meant that it was necessary to have enforcement of some kind to make sure the research did continue, which would cost more money. Second, Nick had something that Dark or the Illusive Man found valuable enough to take the risk of damaging their operation.

What do I have that they couldn’t get anywhere else? I know every word of power ever posted online, but I’m sure they have that too. I personally know Cariss, the beta player to get the furthest in Ilos, but how could they possibly know that David and Cariss are the same person? I know about and use magic on Earth, but I’m at best a good mage, not a great one. His eyes widened. Were they after Jess? She’s incredible with magic, but then why would they not have just expended a little more to catch her? She was on foot, they shouldn’t have had a difficult time following if she was that important to them.

“Why? This doesn’t make sense!” Nick yelled, punching the fluffy bed, which just silently absorbed the impact in an annoyingly unsatisfying way.

He sighed after a few seconds of silence, then got out of the bed. Regardless of the reason, I need to get out of here. Jess just went through losing David, I’m not going to let her go through losing me as well.

Nick thought through his options as he headed to the bathroom, which was just as opulent as his glimpse through the door showed. The first thing he needed was information; he knew very little about the situation he was in. He was in a well-funded secret facility where they did research on magic, and the people there more or less got along, but that was the extent of his knowledge. What exactly were they researching? How big was the place? How many people were living there? What kind of security was there? How did they keep the people inside? How did they communicate with the outside world? Where did their food come from? Did they block Spirit magic?

Spirit magic! “Su!” *Jess can-* you hear me?

“Damn it!” He muttered darkly, sitting down on the couch after finishing with the bathroom. But then how do they research magic if they can’t use it? Unless… “Cir.”

His mana was almost depleted from his go at the telepathic message, but a tiny whirlwind appeared in front of him just as he imagined it, using the mana he was regenerating. After a few seconds he let it dissipate. So they can use magic inside, but anything going out is blocked? What about Ilos itself?

He crossed his arms across his chest, first three fingers extended. “Log in.”

The slight hope faded as nothing happened. So they’ve even found a way to block access to Ilos. This place really is secure. What else can I try? He looked around. I could break some stuff, but that wouldn’t do me any good. I can’t use telepathy to contact Jess. I can’t access Ilos.

A pit in his stomach made itself known and he moved himself off the criminally comfy couch. Well, food comes first I guess, then maybe I can get some answers out of the people here.

He opened the door to his room, peering down the hallway which vanished around the corners at both ends. There were a few other doors along the hall that looked exactly like his, a dark and heavy wooden door with a golden nameplate on the front, but he didn’t see anyone else around. There was no locking mechanism visible, and when he turned the handle on the outside the latch pulled in, so it looked like he could get back in whenever he wanted. Thus reassured, he closed his door, noting that the nameplate on the front already had his name etched into it in fancy letters. Either they worked really fast here or they had been expecting him for quite some time.

After standing indecisively for a few seconds, he turned right and started off down the hallway. He had no clue where he was going, but as long as no one saw him or knew where he was, maybe he could find something they didn’t want him to see. Trying to keep as silent as possible on the carpeted floor, he took the turn at the end of the hall that led him to an almost identical stretch. The only thing different were the names on the doors. He glanced at the ceiling, expecting to see security cameras, but only tasteful lights shone down at him. The next right turn showed him exactly the same hallway once again, the name number of doors in the same dark wood with the same carpet and number of lights. Feeling a little confused, he walked down the hallway where he was forced to turn right again, into another identical hallway. He was starting to get worried when he noticed a doorway on the left side in the middle of the hallway that was made of a lighter wood and didn’t have a nameplate.

Nick stepped through the door quietly, grateful that they seemed to keep everything well-oiled around here, and closed it behind him. Rather than the hotel-esque hallway, this was more of what he expected from a secure top-secret research facility. A white hall stretched forward in front of him, lit by florescent lights set in the ceiling, and had metal doors set with small windows along it. There were security cameras everywhere; there was no way he hadn’t been seen, so rather than try to avoid it, he stepped forward confidently, if still quietly. He’d look a lot more suspicious creeping along than if he just acted like he belonged, he might even be mistaken for another of the other ‘guests’, considering they all wore the same thing.

As he walked down the hall, he glanced through each of the windows in the metal doors, noting the high tech equipment in the rooms, none of which seemed to be in use. Halfway to the first intersection there was a massive blast door, open of course, but the thing was almost a foot thick and looked primed to drop at a moment’s notice. He watched it warily until he was past.

The first intersection had signs giving directions to different parts of the facility, and would have been much more helpful if any of them actually had the names of anything. Apparently 4C4142 15-4C4142 24 and 524F4F4D 01-524F4F4D 36 were behind him, 43414645 was to his left, 4C4142 07-4C4142 14 and 4755415244 were straight ahead, and 4C4142 01-4C4142 06 and 5041524B* were to his right. Nick ran a hand through his hair, wondering what in the world those sequences could possibly mean, before something on one of the signs drew his eye. What he’d thought was an asterisk on one of the codes pointing to the right was actually a nine-pointed star, and more importantly, hand-drawn. With nothing else to go on, he shrugged to himself and turned right.

There were few more metal doors like the ones in the previous hallway, but these were cluttered and looked used. He even saw a picture on the wall of one of them. At the end of the hall there was another metal door, but this one not only didn’t have a window, had a heavy latch, and also looked much thicker. If there was ever a door to keep something out, or in, this was it, but beside the door was that same nine-pointed star. Telling himself that he’d get nowhere if he wouldn’t take some risks, he pulled up on the latch, releasing the bolt, and slowly pushed the door open as quietly as he could.

Like everything else in this building, the metal slab moved silently on its hinges, sliding open without even the slightest squeak. Nick stopped the door as soon as he could see past it through the small opening he’d created. Unfortunately the thing was thick enough that anyone who looked at it would easily be able to tell it was ajar, but it was his hope that if it was spotted they would think it was just a mistake.

The sun shone down on the green courtyard beyond the door, lush with vegetation. A paved path wound its way slightly downhill to a large flat square of concrete. Scientists lined one side with a lot of fancy looking equipment, including Arterian Dark, while Amanda stood opposite them. Her eyes were closed, her hands outstretched at waist height, palms down. What drew his eyes though, was the massive nine pointed star inscribed in a circle between them. It had to be at least twice as far across as he was tall, but more importantly, it was glowing. Every color he could imagine moved along the lines of the odd symbol, shifting constantly, and he watched, transfixed.

“Come to watch?”

A hand landed on Nick’s shoulder and his breath caught in his throat even as he twisted away, reaching for a weapon he didn’t have on Earth to face whatever threat had appeared.

Jeremi stood there behind him in his lab coat and carrying a shiny case, dropping his hand from where Nick’s shoulder had been. “I didn’t think you’d be up and about yet, it’s only been thirty hours since the Illusive Man kidnapped you, and after last night…” The scientist trailed off.

With no bastard sword to defend himself with, Nick started to bring his fists up before he realized that attacking someone would only make things much worse. Instead he just kept his distance from the older man, watching him uncertainly.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have startled you like that, especially after what you’ve been through.” The kindly scientist apologized, looking concerned. “We really don’t mean you any harm. In fact, if we could manage it, you would already be on your way home now, but the only way in or out of this place is by helicopter, and the Illusive Man controls those.” He glanced at the heavy door. “Ah, I’d better get this equipment down there, but I’ll leave the door open a bit so you can watch alright? It really is quite the spectacle.”

When Nick didn’t respond, the scientist pushed open the door and stepped through, leaving it open a bit just like he said he would. Can I trust him? What if I look through and they catch me? They’ll…

They’ll what? Kill me? If it was something they would kill me for I’d already be dead, not here. Kidnap me and take me to a place that I can’t get out of or contact my friends from? Nick relaxed and shook his head at his own paranoia, justified or not, and stepped forward to peer through the crack in the doorway. He needed to find out what exactly they were doing.

Amanda was in the same position, hands down, eyes closed, but the other scientists had backed away a bit and had set up cameras and other recording equipment. They were in the process of adding whatever Jeremi had brought down to the array. A few minutes passed as they got everything set up, and then Dark shouted loud enough that even Nick could hear him.

“Go ahead Amanda!”

The girl tensed, bringing her hands up a bit over the inscribed nine pointed star, then shoved them downwards. The colors shimmering throughout the design shot in towards the middle and formed a shape in green and brown that looked like a seed with a single leaf beside it. The shape broke after a brief moment and the colors flowed upwards, forming into a foliage Plantea.

Nick gasped, his eyes going wide. What!?

Amanda opened her eyes, then pointed towards her right, saying something, and the Plantea moved to where she was indicating. She moved the Ilosian creature back and forth a number of times as the scientists recorded everything. After a few minutes of this, she crossed her arms at the wrist, making fists, then separated them while opening her hands, and the Plantea dissolved away into motes, just like it would have in Ilos if it had died.

Nick pulled the door closed and started retracing his steps to his room. There was no doubt about it; they were studying summoning magic here. There was nothing mentioned about summoning in Ilos, not by the Ilosians, not by David, and not even on the forums. This was new, and possibly ludicrously powerful if used correctly. He needed to learn how it worked and how to do it himself.

Back in his room, he sat down in his overly comfortable couch and waited. He didn’t trust the people here yet, but he didn’t need to trust them to use them. This was simple economics. They had something he wanted, and he had something they wanted, he just needed to find out what that was while also downplaying his desire for this new magic. The first step was to make them come to him, then get as much information as possible while giving as little as possible away himself. Jeremi would come to his room, he was sure of it, and he’d probably bring a few others, which would give Nick the advantage.

His stomach growled at him, but he paid it no mind. It was time for business.

 

 

Earth, Day 14

 

“And how did he find out about the runes?!” Arterian Dark thundered. “He hasn’t even been here two days!”

Amanda flinched slightly at her father’s harsh tone, catching herself as she began to shrink back in her seat. She refused to be scared by this man, or at least to not show it. She, Jeremi, and Arterian were sitting her father’s office, discussing their newest ‘recruit’.

Jeremi, sitting next to her, leaned backwards into his chair, sighing. “He played us is how, and he did it well. We went into his room to feel him out a bit, get a little more information, maybe try to convince him to help us while we work on getting him back home. He talked to us, but everything he told us he’d already said back when he first got here, and he asked about any other kidnappings. His was the first, and we told him so, but he pressed the issue a bit more until he suddenly switched topics to our experiments. However, when we started talking about summoning, he asked about our ‘other big project’, and we let it slip-“

I let it slip. Amanda thought to herself, grateful that the older scientist was covering for her so she wouldn’t have to face the music alone.

“-that we’d had some success storing magic of a few elements in certain symbols for later use. He even told us you said we should inform him as much as we could, and then once he got almost all of the details, he asked to be taken to you so he could tell you personally he’d agreed to work here.”

“We thought that it was wonderful of course and brought him to see you.” Amanda finished. “What happened in here?”

Arterian leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table that separated the two parties. “He ran me in conversational circles using the things you told him until he found out that the rune project was supposed to be kept secret from everyone except a few, by direct order of our sponsor no less. Then he backed me into a corner and got himself full access to every project we’ve got, copies of my records, reports, and correspondence, and an agreement that his full access be kept secret from the Illusive Man and anyone I didn’t want him talking to about the rune project.”

Amanda stared blankly for a second, wide eyed, then looked at Jeremi, who seemed to be having trouble picking his jaw up off the floor. People didn’t get the better of Arterian Dark. He was very experienced with people who tried to mix words or manipulate him, on top of being one of the most brilliant minds on the planet. She looked back at her father and immediately knew what he was going to say.

“Amanda, as the only the only one other than Jeremi with the same sort of access, I’m assigning him to you. He agreed to work with us for the time being, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try to sabotage the Inquisition if he gets the chance. Keep a close eye on him, and take him to the summoning park as soon as possible. According to Jeremi, he has a friend outside, and it will curb some of his hostility towards us if he can talk to her.”

The girl gave a resigned sigh, but nodded. She’d tried to argue before, but had only found herself agreeing to even more work somehow. It was better just to accept what she was assigned.

“Jeremi, I want you to distract him with the summoning and rune projects, keep him focused on those two. If his assistance helps in any big way, then try and get him involved in as much as possible. The kid is brilliant, but we’ll have to see if anything comes of it.” Arterian waited for Jeremi to nod his agreement, then waved them away. “Alright, let’s get back to work; the secrets of magic aren’t going to unravel themselves!”

Amanda frowned slightly as she left the lab/office, Jeremi holding the door for her. She didn’t like the idea of babysitting someone who would no doubt get in her way, but there wasn’t exactly much of a choice. Though maybe if she was close to him, this Nick could tell her how he managed to wrangle so much out of her father.

 

 

Earth, Day 15

 

Nick drank the last of his juice and set it down on the tray return, heading back to the crowded table to reclaim his seat. He was sustaining a tiny whirlwind at his feet, unnoticeable unless you knew what to look for, and small enough that it only relied on his natural regen. The more he trained the better chance he had at getting out of here. It was the day after he’d talked and blackmailed himself a deal, and he was a lot more relaxed now that he’d been able to talk to Jess. She was still staying at her friend Daisy’s place, and the telepathic call had seemed to do her as much good as it had done him. It seemed that the summoning park that he’d glimpsed the previous day was outside whatever stopped outgoing magic, probably something in the building, and he’d been allowed an hour every night to talk to his friend. The Inquisition had been nothing but accommodating once he’d managed a deal for himself, and while he was certain it was just to minimize their losses, so long as they stuck to their side of the deal, he would stick to his, namely using his comparatively powerful magical abilities to help with their experiments.

“So let me get this straight.” Nick said, sitting down and leaning on his elbows on the lunch table. He’d read some of the reports on summoning that morning and the previous night, and was presently trying to combine what he’d read with what the scientists and mages – as the black Key volunteers were called – had experienced. “In order to summon something, you need a summoning circle, which looks like this.” He sketched the three overlapping triangles inscribed in a circle on the table with a finger dipped in his grape juice.

 

 

Amanda, sitting next to him, nodded along with the rest of the table. “That’s right.”

“Okay, and in order to summon something, you have to put mana into the circle.”

The black man across the table wearing a black Key – Darrel, by his nametag – rocked his hand back and forth in a so-so gesture. “That’s technically correct, but it’s more of pushing mana into the lines of the circle. It’ll make more sense when you do it yourself.”

Nick nodded. “Good to know. So once you start pushing mana into the circle, you can affect what is summoned by concentrating on what you want to appear, and once the circle finds something that matches what you want, you will be able to feel how much mana it will take to summon that particular creature.”

“If you go past that amount, the circle will search for a more powerful creature, so you can try and summon that one, or just go with the one you had first.” Amanda said.

“Or if you don’t specify anything, the circle will simply pull the most powerful creature it can with the mana you’ve provided.” The large man sitting at the end of the table – Connor, another of the mages – added.

Nick tapped a finger on the table thoughtfully, remembering from the reports he’d read the previous night and that morning that aside from himself, there were only three mages and two scientists cleared for the rune project. The two scientists were Arterian Dark and Jeremi, both of whom he’d already met, and the three mages were the most powerful and experienced in the facility, in order, Amanda, Darrel, and Connor. He’d have to ask Amanda if the three hung out a lot together or if he’d have to wait till he could talk about the rune project. “Alright, and then the circle will glow different colors based on what elements the summoned creature represents before forming a symbol unique to the type of creature in the center and summoning it. Then once the creature is summoned it is totally under the summoner’s mental control and will not react unless the summoner tells it to, even if it’s attacked or killed. The summoner can dismiss the creature at any time, and after a few hours it will begin to pull mana from the summoner in order to stay on Earth. Does that cover everything?”

“Not quite, though you have the rules after summoning down. The colors are actually drawn to specific points of the star based on element.” One of the scientists to Nick’s left corrected, his nametag obscured by Amanda’s body. “It seems that if the summoner stands between two points of the star, he is always at the bottom of the circle, and if he stands at one of the points, he is always at the top. Regardless of position, the symbol always faces him when the creature is summoned. If you draw the symbol there beforehand, you always get the creature linked to and the circle stays upright in regards to the symbol no matter where you stand. We’ve mapped Fire, Water, Earth, Nature, and Wind to their specific points of the star, but creatures of Light, Shadow, Spirit, and particularly Death simply take too much mana to summon.”

Nick frowned. “So why don’t you have more than one mage add mana to the summoning circle?”

The whole table went silent for a few seconds as they all processed the idea.

“Is that possible?”

“It could be, we never tried.”

“Then who dictates the summoning?”

“How do you think the EM spectrum would react to the addition of extra waveforms?”

“If there’s interference with the-“

“Do you think the mana would-“

“What about the physical effects-“

Nick stood up to leave, joined by Connor and Darrel. “I think I’ve done enough damage for today.”

Darrel smirked. “Yeah, once they get going it’s practically impossible to stop them. I’ll have to let the other mages know that you’re the reason they’re going to be subjected to a whole new round of experiments.”

Connor smacked the black man’s arm, grinning. “Don’t be cruel, we have to come up with prank ideas to put poor Nick here through before we get everyone else involved.”

“And here I was wondering what you people do for fun…” Nick muttered loud enough to hear, rolling his eyes ostentatiously.

“Well the videogames are great, but nothing beats a good prank.” Darrel said as Connor just grinned evilly.

They set their trays on the return counter and headed for the exit. “Should we just leave her there like that?” Nick asked, nodding at Amanda.

“Oh yes, she’s just as bad as the rest of them when it comes to these things.” Connor nodded, rolling his eyes.

“Come on newbie, leave her, we’ll teach you how to read hex so you can actually find your way around this place.” Darrel added. “Why Dark decided all the signs had to be written in hexadecimal I still have no idea.”

 

 

Earth, Day 17

 

Nick set the controller aside and leaned back into the couch, reeling from another resounding loss. “You two are way too damn good at this game.”

He, Connor, and Darrel were sitting in his room on his unbelievably comfy couch, playing a game called Dracon Force, some futuristic first-person shooter that hadn’t actually released to the public yet. Despite the appearance of slacking off, they were actually just resting while they recovered their mana, the only faster way being to sleep. They’d spent the whole morning working on the rune project until they ran out of mana and had to call it quits. Amanda had headed off somewhere to do more science-y things, and the guys had headed to Nick’s room to relax.

“Nah, we’re not that good, you just suck Nick.” Connor snickered. “You should see Amanda play, she’s insane with this game. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her die.”

Nick’s eyebrows went up, suitably impressed as Darrel nodded his agreement to Connor’s statement. “What’s she up to anyway?”

“Probably messing with the runes to see if she can figure out any new ones. We only have Fire, Nature, and Spirit runes figured out, and those are just the same triangle and crossed lines rotated three different directions.” Darrel said.

“I noticed, considering that’s all we did this morning. Take a blank card, draw or print a rune on it, cast one of the spells of that element into it for later use, repeat.” Nick pulled out a sharpie and a couple of blank cards that he’d swiped from the lab earlier, leaving some still in his pocket for later use.

“Dude, you can’t take those out of the lab.” Darrel admonished.

“I know, I know, I’m going to put them back as soon as we finish here. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about it.” He said, uncapping the sharpie and drawing the rune for Fire on a card, an equilateral triangle with two lines crossed across the top point. “I remember reading about the alchemical symbols for the elements of fire, air, water, and earth, and how if you overlapped them you got a six-pointed star. Now what happens if you overlap the three elemental runes we know about right now?” Moving the sharpie again, he drew the runes for Spirit and Nature over the Fire rune.

“A nine pointed star, like the one we use for summoning, but what’s that got to do with alchemical symbols?” Connor asked.

“Nothing, nothing at all, but it got me thinking about the nature of everything in Ilos. It’s all super simple to use and there usually aren’t any complicated rules or anything like that, so why should runes be any different? With our runes, we have an equilateral triangle with base at the bottom, and two lines across it tracing two of the lines in our star. So have a nine pointed star, nine elements, one for each point, and guess how many ways you can have two lines cross over an equilateral triangle at the angles we already have for our other runes?”

“Nine.” Connor responded. “And you think that each of these different ways corresponds to one of the nine elements.”

“Bingo.”

“Well, let’s try it. It’s no fun creaming you every round of Dracon Force we play anyway.” Darrel laughed.

Nick took six of the cards and drew a triangle crossed by two lines at the bottom on each. “If I’m right, this should be the rune for one of the six elements we’re missing, so let’s try each of them.”

Connor and Darrel each took a pair of cards while Nick held one of his up. “Cir.” The card waved back and forth in the sudden tiny whirlwind. “Well it isn’t Air. Alright Darrel, your turn.”

The black man held out a card. “Pos.” He shook his head as the card frosted over, becoming cold to the touch. “Not Water. Connor?”

The large guy put out one of his cards. “Res.” A second or two of silence passed as Connor’s mouth dropped open and he looked at Nick. “Holy shit. You actually figured it out! This is the rune for Earth! We need to go back to the lab and get this recoded!”

Nick couldn’t stop his grin as they grabbed the drawn up cards and quick-stepped for the lab, the other two men completely forgetting the blank cards and sharpie sitting on the couch.

 

 

Earth, Day 18

 

Nick sat in the rune lab with everyone cleared for the project, going over the discoveries they’d made with Arterian and Jeremi, who had been pretty hands-off with him for the past few days. Amanda was standing at the front, using a slideshow and projector to show imagery. So far it had been a bunch of technical jargon that only someone who had a lot of education could even hope to comprehend, but the two scientists in the room seemed happy about the results.

“With the discovery that we can use more than one person to summon, we mapped the remaining points of the summoning circle, though we weren’t able to summon anything of the Death element, it was the only one remaining and thus must be at the top point. With the rest of the runes for the elements also discovered, we were able to cross the two and come up with this image that contains both the summoning circle with elemental corners and their corresponding runes.” Amanda stated, clicking the slideshow forward one.

 

 

“The images were provided by the Illusive Man, and he was rather insistent on using these particular images for the elements, including the one in the middle where we would place a summoned creature’s symbol. That’s all I have.”

Before anyone else could speak, Nick interjected. “Actually, I want to try something real fast. Jeremi, you know how using magic works right? Imagining the effect you want to have and then speaking the word of power to make it happen?”

“Yes Nick, I do.”

Nick handed him a spell card with a fire rune drawn on it, already charged. “Then I want you to cast Fire and make a little flame, like this one. Fas.”

Jeremi frowned as the little fire floated in front of him, flickering merrily. “Nick, Those without Keys cannot-“

“Just humor me.” Nick cut in.

“He has already made two big discoveries.” Amanda added.

“Very well. Fas.” Jeremi waited for a second, and when nothing happened moved to hand the card back, but Nick pushed it back towards him.

“Try it again. Look at my little flame and try to make a copy of it right next to mine in your head.”

“Fas.” Again, nothing happened.

“Again.”

“Fas.” Nothing. Jeremi scowled.

“Again.”

“Nick, I think-“ Arterian started to say.

“Fas.” A little candle flame appeared next to the one floating in midair, vanishing after only a second as the older scientist lost his concentration.

“You’re a wizard Harry.” Nick said, straight-faced.

Jeremi blinked, silent for a couple seconds. “I’m a what?”

Darrel and Connor snickered, and Amanda, still at the front of the room, bit her lip.

Nick put on his best British accent. “A wizard. And a thumping good one at that, I’d wager. Once you train up a little.”

The two scientists in the room looked at each other, then back at Nick, seeming to wonder if he’d gone crazy. He could hear Connor and Darrel giggling madly in the chairs behind him, and Amanda was doubled over at the front of the room with her hands across her mouth doing her level best not to laugh. Nick just grinned. It’d been awhile since he’d had the opportunity to make people lose it like that, and it felt good to be doing his old routine. He could almost forget he was locked in a high-security facility in an unknown location.

Almost.

 

 

Earth, Day 19

 

Nick scowled at the guard’s lunch table. There were two new men today, and they didn’t exactly look like the mall cop type. He had no idea what professional soldiers looked like, but if he had to guess, these two would be very close to what he would describe. Unlike the rest of the guards, they carried their weapons everywhere and looked strong enough to bench press two of him. The ramifications of additional well-trained guards didn’t sit well with him, but no one else seemed to mind, or notice, so he hadn’t brought it up quite yet.

“-Nick?”

He turned his attention back to the table of Amanda, Darrel, and Connor, and blinked when he realized everyone was looking at him. Wracking his brains, he came up with the most dignified response possible. “Huh?”

Amanda giggled next to him in her normal spot, and Connor, sitting across the table, rolled his eyes and explained. “We were talking about the runes and summoning. Runes just hold mana in the form of a spell right? So what if we used them as extra fuel for summoning?”

Nick frowned, taking a bite out of his ham and turkey sandwich to give himself a moment to think. There shouldn’t be any problem with using runes as mana batteries for summoning, or rather he couldn’t think of any specific negative effects besides it just being a possible waste of time. “Yeah, we can give that a go this afternoon; see if we can get it working. It’ll be more interesting than making rune cards all day.”

“Yeah, Jeremi has been going through them almost as fast as we can make them between the four of us.” Darrel grumped good naturedly.

“He has plenty of readings from us using them, he’s trying to see if there’s anything different if someone completely unconnected to Ilos uses them.” Amanda explained.

Nick finished off the last bite of his sandwich and stood with his tray. “Well, I’ll be in the park when you guys finish.”

Amanda hurriedly drained her apple juice and joined him as he bussed his tray and headed out of the cafeteria and towards the summoning area, glancing at the signs on the walls to guide himself. He wasn’t used to translating hexadecimal yet, and it took him a few seconds of looking at the code on each corner as he went by to make sure he was going the right way. When they were about halfway, Amanda spoke quietly, ducking her head a little so the cameras couldn’t see her mouth.

“Su.”

*So what have you learned about the Illusive Man?*

Nick caught himself before he looked at her, concealing his shock. It was true that he’d been reading over the correspondence to and from the Illusive Man in his free time, and while he was suspicious of everything about this place, he hadn’t realized that Amanda had anything but trust for the Terran Inquisition. His first thought was that she was a spy to see what he thought about the mysterious benefactor, but he dismissed it almost immediately. Everyone on the base already knew exactly how he felt, and the fact the she was concerned about the cameras possibly getting a lip reading off of her meant that she had put a fairly significant about of thought into this and she wanted to hide her doubts from anyone else. Besides, the more people that trusted him the better, and he needed someone to talk to, to confide in.

*He’s careful. There’s very little in the reports about him that isn’t also obvious from just this base. He’s rich or has contacts that allow him access to a massive amount of funds, and he knows a lot about magic and Ilos and has for a long time. You were one of the first ones here and arrived less than two days after the launch right?* Nick waited for her to nod slightly before continuing. *He would have had to started construction of this place a good amount of time before that, and he knew that cold iron almost nullified magic in order to have the entire building lined with it. Some of our findings seem only to confirm what he already knew, which means that he has or had other facilities like this one to study magic, almost definitely before the launch. It’s possible the beta testers could do magic, which means the Illusive Man had three months after the beta started to figure out enough to set this place up, and I’m not sure it took that long. Do you remember when you first got here? Didn’t things look a little more used than you would expect from a brand new facility? The maintenance reports said there was some wear just days after you arrived here and a couple walls needed to be repainted, but haven’t noted anything near that level afterwards. It’s possible that this is not the first group to do research on magic here. *

Amanda was silent for a moment, thinking about what he’d said. *But why keep it quiet like this?*

Nick absently rubbed the segmented black band that encircled his head. *A lot of reasons. This kind of revelation would cause widespread chaos and probably segregation and experimentation on those with a black Key. Magic is a potent military force, and every government in the world would be racing to gather as many mages as possible to use as soldiers. With cold iron, mages could essentially be kept as human factories to produce weapons in the form of rune cards.*

Amanda’s eyes widened as she considered that. *Then why are you so suspicious? It seems to me like he’s actually looking out for us.*

*It’s because he’s so careful that I’m worried. He most likely will use the discoveries we’ve made to make money, and lots of it, but that only works so long as he has a monopoly on the knowledge. If anyone here gets out and tells people about what we’ve done and discovered, he loses that, and he’s much too careful to let that happen. I don’t know what he’s promised to get this many people as volunteers, but from what I’ve gathered from talking to the mages and scientists here, I’m the only one who has any sort of outside contact, and that’s because he doesn’t know about it. If any report got to him that I could talk to someone outside this base, I guarantee I would be dead within the hour.*

This time it was Amanda that caught herself before she could look at him and give away their conversation.

Nick laughed softly, but there was a dark edge to it. *Don’t be so surprised. If there’s enough money on the table, things get serious very quickly. What do you think is going to happen when people want to leave here? When productivity drops? When we aren’t making any new discoveries? If we get powerful enough that he might possibly be unable to control us? We’ll be vanished somehow or another, probably violently. Then a new group of researchers and volunteer mages will arrive a few days after that to a ‘brand new facility’, maybe informed with some of the discoveries we’ve made… and the maintenance reports will show that a few walls needed to be cleaned and repainted.*

*You don’t know that. He could hire us after we’re done here or something.* Amanda’s protested weakly, her voice shaking and face visibly pale.

Nick sighed. She’d had just about enough for now. There was no point in continuing. *This is all just conjecture, maybe I’m just paranoid and we’ll be free to go after we finish here. Let’s go see what we can do with the rune cards and the summoning circle.* If only I believed it was paranoia.

 

 

Earth, Day 20

 

The speaker in the ceiling of the lab crackled to life and Arterian’s deep voice spoke through it. “Attention all Inquisition members. Report to the cafeteria immediately for an urgent meeting.”

Nick frowned. This was a surprise, and he didn’t like surprises when he was supposed to be informed about everything beforehand. He’d just arrived to the rune lab from breakfast, and hadn’t done anything but take out the blank rune cards, so he took the opportunity to pocket a few on his way to the door while there was no one else in the lab. Worst-case scenarios ran through his head as he walked to the meeting place, and he prepared himself to fight the soldiers they had on the base. He peeked around the corner into the cafeteria, and relaxed a little when he saw only a few of guards there finishing breakfast, and none of them armed. Spotting Amanda, Connor, and Darrel sitting at their usual table, he walked over to them and sat down next to the teenage girl.

Amanda took one look at him and leaned in to whisper, putting a hand on his arm. “Relax Nick. Dark just got a message from the Illusive Man a few minutes ago and is going to tell everyone what it is.”

Nick opened his mouth to ask what it was, but Arterian’s voice spoke over him from where the man stood at one wall. “Good morning everyone. I have a few announcements to make this morning that all of you need to hear. I received a message from the Illusive Man this morning, and there are a few things he told us to reveal, starting with the existence of a project we’ve kept secret until now…” The man looked directly at Nick and smiled darkly. “The rune project.”

Nick went cold. He’d bullied his way into the deal he had with Arterian on the threat of exposing the rune project, and that threat was now void. He had nothing to protect himself, and Arterian seemed like the kind of guy who was going to make him pay for shoving the man into a corner. How am I gonna get out of this? I can leverage the discoveries I’ve made on the possibly of making more, or…

Nick was still worrying over the issue when Amanda grabbed his arm, wrenching him out of his thoughts. Arterian was done talking about runes, and Jeremi had joined him at the front of the room, demonstrating magic. Why was Amanda gripping his arm so hard? They’d seen Jeremi use rune cards almost constantly the past couple days. The way the teen girl’s face was frozen in shock made him look closer at the older scientist, who was cupping a small flame in both of his hands, making it vanish and appear repeatedly by casting fas. Jeremi was using magic with both hands occupied, meaning he wasn’t using a rune card.

“Holy shit.” Nick breathed as the implications hit him.

Arterian stepped forward again as Jeremi let the fire vanish and moved back to his seat. “Everyone will be assisting in the research of runes from now on. We need to see if we can repeat this magic learning process with someone else and objectify it as best we can. As a final note, we will be having a free day one week from today with entertainment on the Illusive Man’s dime. We will have forms in the cafeteria all of today and tomorrow for you to put in requests. Our sponsor has indicated that money is no object, and to write down whatever you desire so long as it can be brought here by helicopter and moved inside. You have all been granted access to the rune labs, so use today to familiarize yourself with that research. That is all.”

Nick stood from the table, waving off anyone who approached him, not hearing anything said to him. There was a deep foreboding about the coming days, and that feeling suffused him as he made his way to his room. He didn’t even care when Amanda followed him. He sat down against the back of the couch and leaned his head against it. allowing Amanda to sit next to him without complaint. After almost an hour, he looked over at the brown-haired girl.

She smiled a bit at his movement. “Done staring off into nowhere?” Her smile faded into concern when he didn’t respond. “You okay?”

Nick shook his head slowly, clenching his hands together in an effort to stop their shaking. “I’m scared Amanda. No one seems to understand what this discovery means for us. This is it. Game over. The Illusive Man has his hands on the grand prize, everything he ever wanted, and the people here are the only ones who can take it from him. What do you think he’s going to do?”

Amanda went pale.

 

 

Earth, Day 25

 

Nick tossed nine blank rune cards on the table, placing three already inscribed with cir in front of him as he sat down.

Silence greeted him as Connor, Darrel, and Amanda stared at him, two in shock, one with determination.

“Nick!” Darrel hissed. “Holy shit dude! How the fuck did you get these? You’d be in so much trouble if these were seen!”

“I stole them before they started doing full body searches whenever we leave the lab, that’s how, a few at a time.”

“But why are you showing us?” Connor asked, his face an odd mix between surprise, confustion, and anger. “If we’re even seen with these we’d be in just as much trouble as you!”

“Yeah dude! What the fuck! Why the-”

Nick cut them off. “Because the four of us are by far the most powerful mages in the Inquisition, and you won’t flip shit when I tell you that the Illusive Man is going to try to kill us in the next few days.”

That shut the two men up fast, especially with Amanda nodding her confirmation and starting on the evidence. “Haven’t you guys noticed how many new guards we have and how professional they look?”

“What?” Connor scoffed. “There’s like four new ones, I’ve seen them at lunch, even if they carry guns everywhere, everyone is used to it by now.”

Amanda shook her head. “You saw new men there each day. Different new men. There’s upwards of twenty new soldiers here, and they’ve been coming four at a time to get a look at all of us in person.”

The heavyset man frowned, looking like he was trying to remember while Darrel spoke. “Even if there are new guards, that doesn’t mean anything. Why would the Illusive Man want to kill us? We haven’t done anything but do magical research for him.”

“Because he’s careful.” Nick stated, taking grabbing a folder he had in his lap and placing it on the table over the blank rune cards. “I had access to all of the correspondence between the Terran Inquisition and the Illusive Man, and he’s not one to risk any of us getting free with our discoveries.”

“How did you-?”

“I threatened to reveal the rune project to everyone and forced Arterian to give me access to everything and keep that access secret.”

“Hoooly hell.”

“Shit!”

Nick nodded at the table as he stood up. “I put everything I’ve found in that folder. Look it over.”

He and Amanda walked away and sat on his bed. He’d written everything he’d told the girl and placed it above the copies of the reports and correspondence he’d been given. Surprisingly enough, Arterian hadn’t taken them away or even removed his full access to the base, even with Nick’s main leverage gone. “Amanda. While they’re looking at that, this is for you.” He took out a small folded piece of paper and handed it to her. “These are my codes for access to everything on this base, just in case you need them. They will unlock any door and can be used to access any computer. Memorize them, then burn that paper so no one catches you with it.”

“But… why me?”

“Because you’re the one I trust the most here, and I want you to be safe.”

Her face reddened and she looked down. “I ahh… Thanks.”

It took a bit over an hour for the two men to look over all the paper in the folder and discuss things between them, and having apparently decided, they waved Nick and Amanda over to the table.

Connor started. “Look Nick, how sure are you about all this?”

Nick got up and walked over to the large carpet in the middle of the room, then lifted it and crawled under, retrieving two things and coming back to set them gently on the table. “Enough that I was willing to risk stealing these.”

“Dude!”

“Holy fuckin’ shit Nick!”

On the table were two spell cards made of pure platinum, the Light and Shadow runes in them set in diamond and glowed softly white and dark grey respectively. It had taken Nick a full week to charge these in the lab, then ‘use’ them for an experiment a few days ago when it was discovered they could be used for summoning purposes. “This is how sure I am we are going to be attacked.”

Connor and Darrel looked at each other, and the black man summed up their thoughts. “Fuck.”

“We’re on board. What’s your plan?”

Nick sighed in relief, echoed by Amanda, and his body relaxed. He hadn’t realized how tense he’d been until just now. “Okay. No one else is gonna listen to this and not go to Arterian, so for now just spread a little doubt. Call attention to the new guards at lunch, how they always carry their weapons, how they don’t seem even the slightest bit friendly. Maybe how you feel threatened by them rather than protected, say you’ll be watching them to make sure they don’t try anything. Talk enough to get people thinking about it, but not enough to call undue attention to yourself. Each of you mark three of these blank spell cards and charge them. Keep them on you whenever you can, and keep some of the experimental ones near you while you’re in the labs. When they attack, I’ll use these three as air walls to deflect their bullets, so just run if we’re together, otherwise meet up at the park. I know of a powerful creature that we can summon to get us out of this place, but it’s going to take a lot of mana, which is why it’s going to take all four of us plus these.” He tapped the platinum spell cards. “If we can use only the spell cards to get to the summoning circle, we should have enough mana to do it.”

“Wait, how do you know of such a powerful creature? You haven’t been far enough in Ilos to know of anything that would take all four of the most powerful mages here plus these spell cards.” Amanda protested.

I was hoping they wouldn’t catch that... Guess I have to explain. Nick sighed. “You know of Cariss ‘the Calm’ right?”

They all nodded.

David’s more famous than I thought. Nick mused before continuing. “He’s my best friend, and he described this one to me as more powerful than any other player in the game with the exception of the seven leaders.”

“Damn. Okay. I’m sold.” Connor shook his head, seemingly impressed.

“Same.” Darrel nodded.

“What’s his name?” Amanda asked.

Nick replied without hesitating. “David.”

“Alright.” She glanced at each of the men around the table in turn. “Let’s make it out of here alive.”